‘Electrify daily life’, urges Cop31 host
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- Murat Kurum, Turkey's environment minister and Cop31 host, called for 35% of final energy demand to be met by electricity by 2035, up from about 20% today, and pledged the target will be a defining priority of the Cop31 presidency.
- Close to four-fifths of final energy globally still comes from fossil fuels, with transport, heating, and industry lagging behind; roughly a third of global electricity generation already comes from renewables, according to figures cited at the Bonn talks.
- Chris Bowen, Australia's climate change minister, said cutting fossil fuel dependence and investing in electrification address both worsening climate disasters and 'the worst energy crisis in our history,' noting renewable energy is now the cheapest form of power.
- The Iran war has pushed oil prices above $100 a barrel—the second fossil fuel crisis in five years—boosting the case for electrification, as EVs and heat pumps are already established technologies with patchy uptake.
- Simon Stiell, UN climate chief, told ministers that 'deadly heat kills thousands in a single day' and that scientists warn a possible 'super El Niño' this year will turbo-charge temperature rises.
- The International Energy Agency will be asked to produce a report on how the 35% target can be met; previous Cops set goals to triple renewables and double energy efficiency, but no electrification target has ever been set.
- Cop31 will be held in November in Antalya under an unusual joint Turkey-Australia presidency; Kurum also called for halving the global waste growth rate by 2035, a priority tied to Emine Erdoğan's national waste-cutting initiative launched in 2017.
Why it matters: No Cop has ever set a dedicated electrification target—previous summits set goals to triple renewables and double energy efficiency, but never addressed end-use sectors that consume the bulk of fossil fuels. Adopting the 35%-by-2035 goal would force governments and the IEA to map concrete oil-and-gas phase-outs in transport, heating, and industry, with oil above $100 a barrel adding immediate economic pressure to act.
